Study Shows How Your Birth Order Can Hinder Your Love Life

byKaitlin StanfordJun 12, 2014

Photograph by Getty Images

According to some not entirely scientific–but still probably accurate–research from the dating website Plenty of Fish, your birth order could play a very significant role in whether or not you'll find love sooner or later in life. And the news for middle children is (yet again) not so great.

Of the 7.6 million single analyzed in the study, researchers discovered that firstborns tend to find relationships quicker than only children, middle children, and the youngest kids in the fam. In fact, firstborns are 10 percent more likely to find a match on Plenty of Fish than the national average.

While kids without any siblings are .5 percent less likely to find love, the second kid born to a family of four was by far the least likely.

That news is yet another bummer for middle children, who have been informed by recent studies that they are a tad less intelligent than their older siblings and tend to set "unrealistic objectives" for themselves, for which they usually fall short. (Thanks a lot, science.) Though let's not forget one major perk: they're said to be more successful in the long-run.

Check out the informative chart Plenty of Fish shared of their results:

The participants in the study were from both the U.S. and Canada, and ranged in age from 25 to 45. 25-45.

As Plenty Of Fish public relations manager and dating coach Sarah Gooding told Metro.us: “The one finding that surprised me was single children, that they had disadvantages in income size, pursuit of higher education and in finding a relationship. I was also surprised that family size had an influence."

“In a family of two," she continued, "the youngest child is 3 percent more likely to pursue a PhD., while in a family of three children, the youngest child is 11 percent less likely.”

You can read more about the study here and more from us on the so-called "middle child syndrome" here.